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Oil-Field Brine Impacts on Seed Germination and a Contemporary Remediation Technique for Contaminated Soils

The growth of fossil fuel production in North Dakota has resulted in numerous releases of brine. Brine releases cause vegetation mortality as well as the deterioration of soil structural and edaphic properties. Little research to date has been dedicated to the germination response of plant species grown in North Dakota to brine-induced salinity. Through the exposure of plant seeds to increasing levels of brine and NaCl-induced salinity, it was determined that the graminoid species Elymus hoffmannii (AC Saltlander) and Pascopyrum smithii (Western Wheatgrass) exhibited the greatest germination at high salinities. Current remediation technologies for brine-impacted lands often produce mixed results, requiring further research and testing. In two laboratory experiments, the ability of materials to wick salts from brine-contaminated soils was tested. The results of these studies show that some materials reduced Na concentrations in sandy loam, loam, and silty clay soils by upwards of 88, 89.5, 38.4% respectively.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ndsu.edu/oai:library.ndsu.edu:10365/31571
Date January 2019
CreatorsGreen, Aaron Wesley
PublisherNorth Dakota State University
Source SetsNorth Dakota State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext/thesis
Formatapplication/pdf
RightsNDSU policy 190.6.2, https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

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